Monday, August 9, 2010

Arrogantly Shabby Pawleys Island, South Carolina Part I

When my family lived in New Orleans we would spend our summers in Destin, FL along with all the other Louisiana/Alabama/Mississippi families trying to beat the heat. But once we moved to Asheville, NC we started heading to the coast of SC. We first rented the house "Fantasea" in Pawleys Island in 1990 and have been going every year since (except the year I got married...sorry family!).

You can read about Pawleys Island history here and here. Mainly it is the oldest seaside community on the East Coast. Rice planters would ditch their plantations on the river and head here to hide from the malaria stricken mosquitoes.

All I can tell you is that it is the perfect vacation spot. It's not all Myrtle Beached out meaning that aside from the few Public Access points the beaches are only full of families vacationing there. No loud music, no jorts, nada. Just the pure open beach. Pawleys is called Arrogantly Shabby because the homes are mostly historic beautiful beach homes with a hint of wear (or tons of wear). On the South end of the Island the ocean front homes back up to the creek in the back so you have both the tidal creek and the ocean to play in.

The perfect beach house at Pawleys has the 5 major requirements:

1. Oceanfront

2. Creek dock

3. Outdoor showers

4. Screened porch beach side

5. 2nd porch creekside

"Fantasea", which is owned by friends of ours in Asheville, is the quintessential beach house. It meets all 5 requirements above along with hardwood floors and a huge deck on the beach. I have rented two other houses on the island for bachelorette parties but I cannot imagine ever spending my family vacation anywhere else.

Since I'm no Pat Conroy I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Where we set up shop for the day (Fantasea in the background w/Dad's HUGE flag)

I love your post about Pawleys! My family has been going to Pawleys ever since I can remember and my parents actually built a house there the year before Hurricane Hugo hit-great timing! I have my best memories there and try to spend as much time as possible there every summer!

Hi Bailey, haha, that was when Katie Holmes was so sweet!Blue Chickadee, Isn't it the best ever? I could have posted 100 pictures (I took 1200 this year). I went this past year in the Fall and it was lovely. Did you rebuild?xoxoxox

I love that you adore Pawleys and you made the distinction from our awesomeness from that of the jort & tanktop infested Myrtle Beach. I also love that you used the word jort, it's one of my husand and my favorites. We use it alot at the Walmart in Surfside. We are now officially blog friends!